Dr. Tom Moerenhout is an associate research scholar at Columbia University. He attained his PhD at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. His research is on the political economy of sustainable resource valuation and predominantly focuses on energy policy reform in developing countries. In 2015-2016, Tom was a visiting researcher at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP). In 2016-2017, he was the Aramco-OIES fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. His current research mainly concentrates on energy subsidy reforms in the MENA region, electricity sector reforms in India and subsidy & taxation reforms in Nigeria. In his research, Tom also zooms in on social safety net reforms to mitigate negative impacts from pricing reforms.
Since 2010, Tom has also worked for the Global Subsidies Initiative of the International Institute for Sustainable Development. As a Senior Associate, he has cooperated with international organizations, NGOs and foundations to advance research on the sustainability of energy pricing policies and their reform. In recent years, Tom has also provided practical, in-country support to energy pricing reforms in – among others – Nigeria, Egypt, India, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan and Lebanon. In doing so, he has worked directly with local consultants and governments via the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program. Tom has a keen interest in the comprehensive reforms that are needed to transition to sustainable energy policies, including a focus on the energy-water-food nexus. To this end, he supports a more proactive integration of behavioral economic insights into reform programs. Currently, Tom is ISEP’s Program Lead for the study of energy subsidies.